Trials of the Triforce
by WritesOnCoffee
Summary: When an army from another world invades Hyrule, Queen Zelda sets out to find the Hero of Time to help her salvage her kingdom. As the two traverse the different corners of reality, they soon discover the cycle of the Eternal Heroes across reality. As the stakes rise, they learn that even the Gods and Triforce are not what they seem. (Other Nintendo characters included)
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The castle walls of Hyrule had endured twenty-three sieges from invading armies of moblins, resisted dodongos who made the charge against their bricks and mortar, and survived every storm, their stones unweathered, unaffected.

"Never will we see the day," Queen Zelda had said once, "will those within our walls ever fear the axes or lances of an invading army. Never will their homes be light aflame, nor will their ground be soiled with their own blood."

When the scent of burning wood and the sound of screams woke the young queen from her slumber, she thought she was still stuck in a dream—a nightmare, perhaps—where Hyrule had been sacked.

The shuffle of armor outside her door told her otherwise.

A sharp twirl of the finger summoned her garments from their draws. Her sleek, elven form was garbed by her queenly gown. The Symbol of the Triforce was emblazoned on her torso. Under the clothe sat ancient runes. The silk—sturdy enough to block the edge of a sword—though not the blunt force of impact.

Sounds came louder, just outside her door.

Zelda readied an enchantment, a ball of fire that surged and seared to life in her palm. Make one move—just one. She'd send a tornado of flame strong enough to peal the flesh off their blackened bones—

The door opened. Zelda held her hand. Her knights stood there, her loyal sentries. She let the ball of flame turn to ashes in her palms. "Surely there are better ways of waking up your queen." Zelda settled herself in a chair, legs folded. "How bad is the situation?"

"My queen, we must take you to safety. Now."

That bad. Not even enough time to explain.

Never since she was a girl, since she had sent the betrayer Ganondorf to the realm of shadows, had Zelda felt this rush of fear. Heart racing. Pulse quickening. She obeyed her first instinct before following the guards to the subterranean bunker.

She took her sword, arrows, and bow.

Down the tight, narrow path. None of the eight sentries flanking her said a word. They marched—standard formation, halberds up, eyes straight ahead.

Though, even through these walls, Zelda could smell the smoke.

No one spoke until the Queen was put in her private carriage. Bound to four horses, the carriage looked like any ordinary structure from the outside. Under the wooden paneling, however, were layers of reinforced Hylian steel—same material that shields were made of. Zelda spent the few seconds she was stationary reinforcing the steel with her own magical enchantments—she had learned much in her studies. The Triforce of Wisdom—its crest visible on the back of her hand—augmented her magical powers.

With this enchantment, they'd have to drop a moon on the carriage to dent it.

Of course, there was more than one way to destroy a carriage than just throwing things at it.

After half a minute of lingering, Impa emerged. Her oldest mentor, trainer. Impa had known the queen since she was so weak that she could barely hold onto her sword after a brief parry. The loose fingered girl of the past was long gone. Defeating a traitor before they had the chance to bring ruination to a kingdom would do that. "What's the situation?" the Queen finally asked once the cart began to move.

Impa was covered in bruises. A small cut above her eyebrow bled into her lashes. She eyed the back of the carriage, out through the little gaps between panels that served as windows. "The invaders came out from the ground, my queen. We had no time—no time at all—!"

Now outside the castle limits, Zelda could feel vibrations in the air. She had always been at one with nature, with the elements. Such qualities made her worthy of her piece of the Triforce, but these vibrations were unlike any she had heard before. They felt alien. Unique.

Dangerous.

"What are they?" The Queen loaded an arrow, and peered out the carriage's window. She couldn't catch a good glimpse of the streets outside. Too much smoke. Too much fire—!

The dull sound of impact. The driver hit the back of his seat. Blood ran through the cracks in the front of their carriage den.

Then, the whole carriage flipped.

Impa's wrapped her strong arm around Zelda's waist, before catching herself along the wall. She held the two of them up as the carriage rolled across the street. Zelda never made contact with the walls or floor or ceiling.

Once the carriage came to a rest, Impa lowered her ward to the ceiling. Her great sword had been unsheathed. "Sit still, my lady."

The Queen of Hyrule ignored that order.

She sprang out of the carriage seconds after Impa, aiming her bow at everything that twitched. The clouds of smoke were heavy with ashes and embers. A simple spell, a simple charm-

With a thought, an icy wind burst from her skin. Her gown billowed under her. Frost swallowed the ground beneath her feet. Flakes of ice drifted in the air—solidified dew—before spraying out across the field. The fog of war cleared, and, finally, Queen Zelda saw the faces of her adversaries.

Tiny folk. They resembled humans, but stood no taller than the kokiri people of the forests. Shorter, even. Atop their heads sprouted the bulb of a white mushroom, adorned with red spots. They stared, blankly ahead, with dead faces plastered with empty joy. Perpetual smiles. Unblinking. Unwavering.

The queen watched as a group of these freaks unleashed balls of flame from their stubby hands, roasting a building aflame. Heat burst from ever window, spraying glass into the streets. Screams. Cries.

Unmerciful smiling.

The guards, with their metal armor, roasted as these flame throwing freaks unleahsed hell upon them.

A horde of these creatures stood over a fallen knight, ready to throw handfuls of fire down the knight's helm and joints—

Zelda sent her flames among their ranks first.

Their mushroom heads caught flame immediately. They scurried around, wailing and screaming. Zelda let them burn. They were no threat when on fire, except to themselves.

The first arrow went like a jet of light, arching through the air, straight through her target's eye. A second arrow pierced one of their hearts. The third—fourth—fifth—all met their mark.

The knights, seeing their queen among their ranks, regained some morale. A few even thrust their halberds through an enemy's massive head—though many more struggled in such close proximity to these magical creatures. They weren't trained to fight magic. Zelda blamed herself. The walls could hold off so many adversaries. Too few of her guards had seen combat. Only the troops in the outer limits had seen substantial conflict.

Only a few had been like the Hero of Time—!

A ball of flame soared for Queen Zelda's face. She drew back, and watched the fireball fly through a hut's door. The whole building went up in flame. Force of impact blew the walls apart. Cinders and debris soared across the street. Hot smoke blew over her, flooding her nose and mouth with hot ash.

Sensory overload.

She almost missed the white and red blur coming for her.

Impact was wide, soft, but overwhelming. Across her breast, face, and abdomen. Queen Zelda hurdled away, her bow tumbling from her finger. The strung arrow slipped out of place, pattering across the street. Zelda spun without any sense of direction.

Zelda remembered her training with Impa. The two had sparred with swords for years, but most sessions ended with the superior warrior knocking Impa flat across the floor. Strike across the chest. Thrown to the floor. Impact from behind. Knocked to her belly. Training had been exhausting. Sometimes, even now, Zelda lost her spars.

But she had learned how to land with dignity.

Zelda touched down on the floor. She skidded to a halt, and went for the sword sheathed at her hip. The mushroom blur came for her, headlong, sprinting right for Zelda. She poised her sword, ready to plunge the blade from the creature's crown to crotch—

Impa dove between the two, and, with one slice of her greatsword, sliced the incoming adversary in two. Instead of red blood, black, dried up ink sprayed into the air as the two halves bounced along the floor. Corruption oozed out from the body, blackened organs that had shriveled up. Vein-like growths had spread throughout the creature's body, overtaking the organs that clearly had been there originally.

"What are these things?" Impa nudged half of the creature with her toe, then recoiled when black puss sprayed out from an internal postule.

Now that the dust began to clear, now that Zelda took a good look at her enemies, the sentries throwing fire balls didn't look very eager to kill. Their smiles twitched, as if their smiles and joy were frozen in place. As if something had grown within them, replacing all that had once been there with a cruel, savage, merciless fiend.

"Where's the portal?" Zelda asked Impa.

"We can't access it. There's too many of those things guarding the portal."

Zelda didn't wait for Impa to continue. She scanned the horizon, looking for the densest cluster of these damned creatures. Down in the city square. To the south. The Queen didn't wait for Impa. She charged toward the cluster. Each of these things that happened to cross her path were cut down. Their fire spells soared for Zelda's face. She danced out of each blast's trajectory. The creatures threw themselves for Zelda.

Almost as if they asked to be cut down.

She obliged.

Eventually, she reached the cluster. Her own royal guard held their place, circled around the mushroom headed forces. Their lances were held at the ready, jabbing and piercing through the incoming horde. For each one they impaled, for each one they cut down, ten more replaced them, bombarding the pikemen with fire and flames. The flames would burn holes through the containing forces, through which the adversaries would break free to wreak havoc.

Zelda had come close enough.

"Contain them," the Queen shouted, "This will all be over soon."

She held her hand out, summoning the powers of the Triforce of Wisdom, of the Goddess Nayru, of the infinite power of knowledge and the sea. She felt a cool presence wash over her, from toes to fingers. For a momoment, all faded from Zelda's perception. There was no army. No Hyrule. No battle.

Just the design of the universe, at her finger tips.

And, ahead of her, a fold in the universe. A portal to another reality. All of reality—of time, space, and worlds beyond hers—began to distort in the distance, as though a key element of reality had been misplaced.

A misplaced power.

The Triforce of Power.

The wielder of the Triforce of Power had beaten against the boundaries between worlds, had blasphemed the strength of reality by bombarding the structure of reality with his raw power. Whoever wielded this weapon lacked Ganondorf's planning. From what Link told her, the Ganondorf who split the Golden Power was capable of brilliant planning and tactics. Whoever wielded this Triforce of Power was a blind fool, an idiot who thought himself above nature, so decided to beat nature into submission.

His lack of knowledge would be his undoing

She could feel her Triforce strain against this opposing Triforce. The portal begn to distort. She could feel a rush of heat pull her from Nayru's security. But it wasn't enough.

With one mighty push of the mind, with one more rush of thought, she twisted the edges of the portal. With a whim of her will, Queen Zelda of Hyrule broke the link between worlds, severed the bond. The portal, once broad and mighty, evaporated into a dark mist.

The mushroom people clutched at their heads, screaming into the heavens. They fell to their knees, convulsing and shaking and rolling until they fell still, motionless. Dead. Black corruption leaked from their open mouths. Black tears beaded up in the corners of their wide-open eyes.

Their smiles never faded.

Their faces were paralyzed into eternal, unyielding grins.

Nayru's light left the Queen's body, leaving her drained and exhausted. She fell to her knees, propped herself up on her fingertips, wheezing as she struggled t o breathe. The expenditure of such power left her drained. The sound of Impa running over—dull, muted, in the background. Took a second to register in her mind, with all the ringing in her ears, with all the sweat beading along her forehead and neck.

"My Queen!" Impa's mighty arm reached under Zelda's, heaving her to her feet. "You've expended too much of your power. Please, return to the castle. Rest."

Zelda turned toward her castle. Thought the buildings were still aflame, the castle remained undamaged. The civilians had suffered the consequences of this military strike. She had been the target. Or, at the very least, her castle. "Evacuate the civilians," Zelda said, "or at least who's left of them. Hyrule is no longer safe."

"The roads are less safe, with the moblins and octoroks and—"

"They're the devils we know We have never encountered these adversaries from beyond our world." Zelda stabbed her sword into the earth, and propped herself up on it. She leaned on it like a walking stick. "We can't afford to take chances. We're at war with an adversary we know nothing about."

The silence drifted across the battlefield. As soldiers stopped fearing for their lives, the fear for their futures began to overtake them. Impa, in a hushed voice, asked "What do we do now, my Queen?"

Queen Zelda considered the question. She looked for other options—for secondary paths to take—for tertiary strategies—but always returned to the same conclusion.

"Where's Link?"

A/N – This is the first epic fanfic I've written in years. I hope to make this into a larger epic. I value strong feedback and stronger criticism. I'll try to update this regularly, and I will listen to all the feedback I receive. Thank you for reading this far.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The evacuation of Hyrule took the greater half of a week. The bulk of the difficulty was relocation. There were various farms along the countryside willing to accept the "city folk" as temporary farm hands. Many more refused to take in dozens of mouths to read. Some went to Gerudo Valley to live among the Gerudo people. Zelda's heralds used the logic that it only stood to reason that these invaders could invade any region Hyrule. They might not be able to differentiate between Hyrule Castle and anywhere else. If they could invade Hyrule, they could invade the Valley.

And they didn't have Zelda's magical skills.

No one did.

Zelda and her legions remained at Hyrule Castle. Her armies had been disbursed across the Valley. If the enemy decided to rebuild the bridge between worlds once more, she'd find out quickly, before the situation could escalate beyond her control.

All the while, Queen Zelda waited for the rumors on the Hero of Time's location to reach her ears.

Zelda waited at the dining room table one morning when Impa returned from the valley. Dawn's light drifted through the tall stained-glass windows overlooking the room. Odd portraits of green, round reptiles and mustached men in odd garments adorned the walls. Old portraits that Zelda felt clashed with the otherwise austere dining hall. The colorful portraits did not mix with the pearly white columns and silver walls. Still, the curators continued to insist these works of art were important pieces of Hylian art, and the Queen, for all her majesty and authority, had little understanding of that subject. According to them.

Impa had been traveling on horseback from village to village, collecting hearsay and stories pertaining to the Hero of Time, Link of the Kokiri Village.

"There are reports of him wandering in the Kokiri Forests," Impa told the queen over breakfast, "As long as word claiming that the Hero of Time has wandered to another world altogether. We have no information on the matter that can be deemed certain or concrete." Impa hadn't touched her meal. The Queen, on the other hand, had eaten twice as much oatmeal as she normally consumed. Dignified, composed—but the stress of ruling Hyrule during an invasion took a toll on her.

Sip of tea. "Do you think you have a partciular lead? Any suspicions?"

Impa finally took a nibble of toast, but hardly chewed. "Only theories. If this invading force does try to bring ruination upon Hyrule, then I suspect that the Hero of Time will make his presence known on his own."

That boy always did have a knack for adventure. Queen Zelda folded her hands under her chin, a wistful smile on her lips. She hadn't seen the Hero since he was a child, but the adventure they had set on—or, at least, what the boy told her occurred, of the future where Ganondorf dominated the kingdom. A separate world. Often Zelda tried to understand what had happened to that world when she changed the future. Surely it hadn't blinked out of existence. Did another world—another Zelda—exist? A Zelda who had garbed herself in men's clothing, gone by the name of Shiek?

Possible. Unimportant, though. As Queen of a kingdom at the brink of war, such questions only bogged her down.

However, a few questions needed answering.

Queen Zelda and Impa, after breakfast, went to Hyrule's Temple of Time. Miraculously, none of the invaders had touched it. While the buildings around it had been hollowed out by flame, it stood undisturbed. Once inside, Zelda reached the alter, and knelt before it. She had felt the Triforce of Power in that portal. If her fears were true—she had to eliminate this impossible probablilty.

After all, Ganondorf remained in the Realm of Twilight, condemned for eternity for his sins.

Stalks of candles secured in spindly columns came alight. Blue and purple flames surged higher, spiraling and coiling overhead. All in accordance to the Queen's will, to her design. A swipe of the hand. A brief incantation. All secondary to the intent behind the words, to the power and strength granted to her by the fragment of infinity kept within her spirit and body.

The echo of thunder cracked throughout the room, followed by the rush of noise, as a peeophole throughout the cosmos was pried open.

A two-way mirror to the Realm of Twilight.

A column of coiled flames ran from the ceiling down to the floor. Nothing burned. Nothing scorched. Zelda didn't flinch as the flames came crashing down before her. She didn't react to the heat flowing around her skin, over her gloved hands. She only kept hold of the power within her, restrained her. Didn't push too much force into the incantation, yet never drew back.

Very slowly, a silhouette materialized within the column. A hazy figure, yet there could be no mistake. Zelda had seen the Gerudo male in her nightmares at night. She remembered fearing his voice for years. Hooked-nosed, scarlet hair, dark eyes, heavy muscles under his armor. No mistake.

Ganondorf had not left the Realm of Twilight.

"My princess, what an honor to see you in the flesh once more." Ganondorf's shadow mde a mocking bow. He didn't sound surprised.

Zelda didn't betray her sense of curiosity. She kept her face stiff. Disinterested. Cold. "The feeling isn't mutual, I can assure you."

"Yet you have taken the time to see me. As I'm sure you know, I cannot arrange such pleasantries." His voice sounded calm and collected, but seething rage lurked beneath the calm. Zelda could hear the tremor of forced ease in his voice. "What is so wrong in Hyrule that you come to me for help?"

"Nothing. I'm not asking for anything."

"Then why the visit, my princess."

"Queen."

"Queen? Ah, have you finally married that little kokiri boy?"

Zelda's lip twitched. "Hyrule's King does not need to marry to rule. Why should a Queen by given extra restrictions for her rule?"

"Ruthless. Cold. Just as you were as a girl."

If Zelda had been ruthless and cold by saving her kingdom, then she welcomed winter into her soul. "Your Triforce. Do you still have it?"

Ganondorf chuckled. "Care for a demonstration, then?" Ganondorf raised a fist. On the back of his head radiated light. Even through the shadows of Twilight, the Queen recognized the Triforce's glimmer. "Why ask questions to which you must already know the answer?"

Zelda didn't respond. She began to unravel the curses. Cold. Without speaking.

"Wait!"

As expected. Zelda held the invisible reigns of the spell in her hand, ready to sever connection at will. "Tell me what you know."

The shadows of Twilight obscured Ganondorf's figure too much for Zelda to examine his expressions, but she was sure the Gerudo was grinning. "Ah, but for what reason? You come to me for help, for advice. You need me. I'll withhold my say unless you answer my demands. Free me from your prison. Allow me to return to my beloved Hyrule. I won't speak a word until you do, and I know that my word is something you desperately need right now."

Queen Zelda listened. "Do you expect me to beg like a dog to you? Right now, your word means nothing. You have no leg to stand on. I have no proof that you know a thing. Until you prove to me that you have any information to share, you won't so much as see a ray of sunshine, let alone freedom. Only if your information turns the tide of war will I even consider letting you free, and, even then, I'd only let the frailing shade of your former glory free to bask in the sunlight of your barren desert." Zelda grinned. "I know that is something you desperately need right now."

Ganondorf remained steady, unyielding, for what seamed like an hour. It couldn't have been more than ten minutes, but it felt infinitely longer. "As someone who is stuck between worlds, I can sense the vibrations in the universal boundaries. There is a place, several kilometers from here. A small farm. The infestation that has overtaken the Toads—that is their name, the mushroom people—is running rampant there."

Queen Zelda said nothing. She let Ganondorf's vision linger. Once the shade began to flicker, Zelda dismissed the spell with a wave of her hands. The embers scattered. The darkness faded. Zelda didn't know how long the enchantment had eclipsed the sunlight drifting in from the windows, but now, without that enchantment, the sun filled the chamber with gorgeous, luscious light.

"My Queen?" Impa drew nearer, each step measured, careful—

"Nearest farms. Give me the names. Now."

After a few hours of examining the map, of sending sentries throughout the Valley, the Queen found a farm that had fallen completely silent. Worse yet, it had been a farm she had sent her civilians to.

Within an hour of receiving the report, Zelda and Impa had mounted their horses, and trotted across the green hills. No words between them. No thoughts. Simply speeding their way, hoping to reach the farm before it was too late, before—

They found the farm as the sentry had described: absolutely silent. No animals. No people. Hardly even the creak of an old house standing against the wind. Nothing.

Only the sound of the sign out front swaying to and fro.

Lon-Lon Ranch.

"My Queen—" Impa dismounted. "I fear that this might be too dangerous for—"

"You should know by now that your warning falls on deaf ears." Zelda dismounted her horse, and let it run around the grassy hills. "I need to see this on my own. If a physical adversary comes our way, I'll trust you. I don't trust that you'd help against the magic of another world, however."

After a little debate, Impa relented. She resigned herself to stand inches behind the Queen, eyeing every blade of grass as if it were going to cut Zelda's heel.

Behind the farm's fences, Zelda began to smell something. The smell of rot. Dead flesh. She could hear Impa sniffing the air current. No doubt she smelled it too. The smell became stronger in the barn. She didn't touch the door with her bare hands. Rather, she conjured a gust of cold, icy wind. It tore the door of its hinges. The wood splintered. The boards—torn apart. Flakes of ice and snow drifted in the dry barn air, landing, to Zelda's growing horror, on blackened, rotten hay.

Fungus like capillaries stretched from wall to wall to ceiling, thick and heavy. It resembled an ancient spider web cluttered with dried out fly husks. Only rather than the exoskeletons of insects, live-stalk remained suspended. Their flesh had been sucked out under the skin, which had blackened. Only the bones remained, and even those looked soft and slushy. The corruption spread under their hide, networking underneath the flesh, tearing and tugging it in all directions.

The Queen's jaw hung open as she stared at the cows, chickens, and other things too far-gone to ever recognize by name.

"Who in the Goddess's name could do such a thing?" Impa asked.

"Someone from another world let the rot out. They didn't directly kill these people. I'm not even sure they themselves knew it would do this. You saw the Toads—he called them Toads—right? Well, this Rot, when it reached them, turned them into slaves. I think whoever sent it here thought something similar might happen. It looks like they received their answer." Zelda turned from the barn, and walked out with Impa. "Look for signs of the owners. If not—" A ball of flame came to life in Zelda's palm. "We can assume they were in that barn."

"Aren't you going to look more in that farm?" Impa asked.

Zelda threw the ball of fire into the hay. In seconds, it had all ignited. Burning tongues lapped and climbed up the wooden walls, to the ceiling. Soon, the blackened rot had caught flame. It lit up very quickly.

Queen Zelda walked off with Impa. "Look for survivors. Once we get them out, this entire farm will burn."

After a half hour, Impa returned with only one survivor. The owner's daughter, a red haired girl with voluptuous hips. The Queen recognized her. Malon. "I almost missed her," Impa replied. "She had balled herself up into the crawlspace of her house, in her father's room."

"Why wasn't her father with her?"

"He tried to crawl in after her. He couldn't fit. I would've missed her, if I didn't hear her breathing." Impa glanced at the girl she cradled in her arms. "It's possible she inhaled some of the Rot. We can't tell yet."

Queen Zelda ran a hand over Malon's breasts. She tried to sense if anything dark had entered her system. Any of the Rot—

"There is something in there," Zelda concluded, "but let's see if I can extract it."

Impa laid Malon along the grass. The Queen summoned the power of the power of her Triforce of Wisdom, conjured every ounce of magic within her being, before pouring it inside the farm girl's body. Light and warmth radiated throughout the girl's pores, sparks of magic flew—

A bulge spread along her neck.

Zelda focused on it, gathering any trace of darkness from her lungs to that one spot. The bulge grew larger, heavier, denser. It looked like a vein that had built up too much pressure. It squirmed. The Queen never let the corruption break free of her hold.

Very slowly, she forced it up the girl's throat, and out her mouth. It sprayed into the air, coiling above, thrashing like a small serpent. It was black, inky, without true form of its own—shifting from a sleek serpent shape to a bulging splatter of darkness. It tried to break free, but, before it could, Zelda torched it with her magic.

Nothing, not even ash, returned to earth.

Next went the entire farm.

Even when Zelda and Impa returned to Hyrule Castle with Malon in their grasp, the smoke continued to rise.

"This girl will give us a better idea of what we're dealing with," Queen Zelda said, "We have a witness. If she caught a glimpse of the thing that invaded her home, then we might have a chance. Might."

"What if she didn't?" Impa asked as the sentries closed Hyrule Castle's gates behind them.

Zelda let out a measured, heavy sigh. "Then we ask Ganondorf for help."

"Is that truly wise? He's a danger to everyone around him. He could betray you."

"He will, but, at this rate, what choices do we have? We can't combat a threat we know nothing about, and he knows far more than he's letting on." Zelda glanced back at Malon. Still asleep, her moon-shaped face white, sweat smeared on her brow. The Queen touched her cheek. Feverish. "We can't let what happened now happen again. There will never be another Lon Lon Ranch. Not in my Queendom."

A/N – Thank you for reading so far. If you have any suggestions or thoughts, please review. I'm considering doing a Mario fanfic companion to this, showing what's going on in the Mushroom Kingdom during this. Would anyone be interested in that? Thanks again! :)


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